Showdown in New Hampshire: Why Trump is connecting with voters and Haley and DeSantis aren't

I could give you 30 different reasons why Ron DeSantis blew up before today's New Hampshire primary.

Many journalists love to kick him when he's down (worst campaign ever, etc.) and his relentlessly negative coverage, heightened by his own mismanagement of the media, is a factor.

WHY DESANTIS CANCELING SUNDAY SHOWS (INCLUDING MINE) LED HIM TO LEAVE THE CAREER

But it all comes down to something more existential.

An exchange on my show, about Donald Trump, has stuck with me.

He was talking about MSNBC and CNN abandoning Trump's Iowa victory speech, and the former president stated that this was so unfair that NBC and CNN (which does not have a federal license) should be taken off the air.

Now I agree with Trump on substance—and so does new CNN chief Mark Thompson, who told his staff that the network should have aired more speech, according to the New York Times—but not on the remedy. Networks should not be kicked off the air because a president doesn't like the coverage.

I asked my liberal “Media Buzz” guest Leslie Marshall about Trump's threat, and she said his followers “want to entertain him by using nicknames for everyone,” or in the case of making fun of Nikki Haley's Indian name, “racial shading.” “

BRET BAIER: THE WORDS BETWEEN TRUMP AND HALEY WILL PROBABLY GET UGlier

Trump, whether you like him or hate him, is an artist. He has that New York rhythm. He may ramble, but he puts on a show. What journalists hear as authoritarian language, dictator for a day, his loyalists see as a ruse.

When Trump was impeached four times, the media called him a threat to democracy, but that boosted him in the polls.

For the record, Marshall later said that “Ron DeSantis clearly doesn't have that likeability factor.”

Florida's governor can now be said to be a hard worker, a policy expert, a committed conservative with a strong record in his state. But he's a serious, sober guy, not particularly entertaining, and he doesn't like to talk about himself, that he served in the army in Iraq, for example.

Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks with supporters at LaBelle Winery on January 17, 2024, in Rockingham County, New Hampshire. ((Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images))

One thing that DeSantis and Haley, who is a very disciplined activist and faithful to the script, is that neither of them has much of a sense of humor. Neither of them are “entertaining.”

Now, the counterargument here is that government is serious business, that this is not a vaudeville show, and that policies affect all Americans. But you have to win an election first, and establishing a connection with voters has always been crucial, especially in the age of television.

UNDECLARED NH VOTERS CAN ATTEND GOP OR DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES: SHANNON BREAM

Meanwhile, with Haley trailing Trump by double digits in most polls, the media is now focusing on whether the former president, 77, is mentally confused. This is an obvious attempt to even the scales a bit with President Biden, who has long been known for his gaffes and traces of stuttering, but at 81 he clearly seems more frail and sometimes confused than he did three years ago.

So now there is a concerted effort, especially on some MSNBC shows, to portray Trump as someone who is also losing control.

After Trump's victory in Iowa, several media outlets shared articles about his considerable white and evangelical following. (Trump photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images. Photo by Evangelicals for Trump by Scott McIntyre/For The Washington Post via Getty Images. Photo of Trump praying by Pedro Portal/ Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images. Photo by Joy Reid by: Virginia Sherwood/MSNBC via Getty Images).

Past rulings – like saying Obama when referring to Biden, saying Biden might be starting World War II – didn't get much traction.

But when Trump, at some length, mentioned Nikki Haley's name three times and then said she was responsible for security on January 6 and rejected her offer of 10,000 troops, he was clearly talking about Nancy Pelosi. (She disputes that story, by the way.)

And that obvious gaffe gave Haley an opportunity to question his “mental fitness,” more pointedly than her usual comment about not wanting two 80-year-olds running for president.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

This is the kind of aggressive attack Haley should have made long before the final weekend before the vote. Yesterday she said that the entire “media elite” was urging her to back down.

Just when the primaries finally get entertaining, Haley, the last woman standing, is still trailing Trump by double digits in most polls, and this seems too little, too late.